Fame & Culture Making

Fame & Culture Making

Culture is operating under new rules where people, celebrities, brands and content creators are now entangled with one another, occupying the same culture-making space. We’re closer to each other and to every part of culture than ever before, yet somehow at risk of drifting apart. This Culture of Proximity affects how we construct our identity, expectations of intimacy and decide who has influence. Individuals, social groups, crowds, subcultures and mass culture have collapsed into one organic, chaotic entity. We’re closer to each other and to every other part of culture—yet somehow at risk of drifting further apart.

Our relationship to fame and influence has been particularly affect by the closeness of this cultural moment. We are both one-step closer to celebrity and one step closer to being a celebrity than ever before. Influence is now a jump ball – because real people, social stars, celebrities are all occupying the same space and behaving like one another in ways we haven’t seen before. Defining fame today and navigating the new influence ecosystem is critical for marketers to succeed and reach their audiences in an impactful and authentic way. Based on ongoing cultural intelligence-gathering and a series of research studies from the Viacom Velocity Culture & Creative Insights team, this thought leadership piece explores the new mechanisms of culture and influence and how to adapt our thinking as marketers to get closer to our audiences and our customers.